Jigsaw
by thumbtacks
Summary: Their life played out in broken fragments. Of faded snapshots, grazed knees and jagged, bloody ends. Sumimura Yoshimori x Yukimura Tokine


Yoshimori and Tokine: 50 prompts, one sentence each.  
[Revised 28 March 2010.]

Hahaha, looking back and all that jazz, I feel like such a kid.  
Sorry for all the run-on sentences.  
And hey, thanks for all the favorites and comments. :)  
(Friggin' nostalgia. Now I wanna write Kekk again..)

* * *

.01 – Motion

Back to back, he smirks, all teeth, gums and determined eyes and utters, "You ready, Tokine?'' she nods into the silence and the unspoken words are understood; he leads, she follows, and together, they begin: weaving their way through the battlefield that has become Karasumori.

.02 - Cool

Instead of voicing her immediate disapproval, she looks at him, really looks at him, for the first time in years, takes in every minute difference, wonders where the scrawny helpless little kid went; she resists the urge to smack his head when he says, "So… you gonna fall for me now?''and writes-off the slight blush as result of the cold.

.03 – Young

Eight-year-old Yoshimori dreams -hands in his pockets and head in the clouds- of a world without sacred lands to guard, underground organizations and ancestral obligations; where she is just a girl and he is just a boy and theirs is just an ordinary life.

.04 – Last

He leans in, and caught unaware, she freezes, idly registering the brush of warm lips against her own, "For good luck,'' he says with a grin, and runs off to battle.

.05 – Wrong

In her mind, he has always been "Yoshimori The Crybaby", forever helpless, (falling into rivers, getting stuck in trees, and bawling like a baby the minute she made a snarky comment) but she can only watch (: eyes wide and mouth slightly open) as he stands in between her and an Ayakashi, Kekkai surrounding them both and eyes steeled in determination.

.06 – Gentle

"Power alone won't do it,'' she explains as she grasps his hand, "Yoshimori, follow my lead.''

.07 – One

It takes one night for their foundation to crumble, but the expression on his face is one of fulfillment as he crumples into a heap on the ground; she curses her weakness, their fate, and his infuriatingly headstrong ways as she rushes to his side, desperate to stem the flow of blood: she refuses to lose another person to Karasumori.

.08 – Thousand

A package arrives in the mail for Yoshimori a week after the incident at Kokuborou, he glares at his brother's lazy scrawling, (raises an eyebrow at the words: "hope this helps'') and proceeds to strip away the wrapper; at the sight of the book, he blushes a bright crimson- "One thousand ways to woo a girl".

.09 – King

"One day, I will make a candy castle and I shall become its King,'' Yoshimori declares, fueled with the determination and drive that only an eight-year-old who's had his first fix of triple fudge chocolate cake can possess; Tokine sighs and berates him, but upon noticing how his expression dampens, says, "Save me a seat on the throne."

.10 – Learn

Covered in flour, eggs and batter, he surveys his latest creation, pleased, eight-year-old Yoshimori runs off to find his next victim; elsewhere, Tokine gets an ominous premonition.

.11 – Blur

The seasons pass by in a blur; she looks back one day and wonders where the snot nosed little crybaby went and when Yoshimori grew up.

.12 – Wait

He is tired of being left behind, coddled, and constantly protected, on the day Tokine receives the scar on her right hand, he swears he will get stronger.

.13 – Change

Tokine tries to convince herself that it's a good thing, change is inevitable, after all, but she cannot help but grit her teeth, clench her fist, and proceed to scrutinize the girl clinging to his arm; just when did _Yoshimori_ become attractive to the opposite sex?

.14 – Command

"You have a plan in mind, right? I'm all yours.''

.15 – Hold

Old jaded and worn-out, they survey the wreckage and rubble that was once their school, and for once he offers her no words of comfort, no promises a lifetime too long to keep, just a hand on her shoulder and a look in his eyes, and she thinks, maybe this is enough.

.16 – Need

She swats his hand away with a practiced ease, which earns her a pout from an eight-year-old Yoshimori (she tries very hard not to give in)"Drinking unhealthy amounts of this stuff is bad for you,'' she sighs as his eyes start to water: cue the waterworks.

.17 – Vision

His vision is fading to black as he hears her shout, desperation palpable in her voice, "Yoshimori, don't you dare die on me," his shirt is damp, and he wonders whether its from his blood or her tears; managing a weak smile, he cups a hand to her tear-stained cheek before it all goes blank.

.18 – Attention

Eight-year-old Yoshimori grumbles and kicks a pebble in his path, occasionally, he turns back to glare in the general vicinity of Masamori and Tokine (immersed in a discussion of Kekkai techniques), feeling safely out of earshot, he plops down onto the ground and mutters about stupid, Tokine-hogging, older brothers.

.19 – Soul

"Its called soul food," she beams as she hands him the steaming plate; later, as his stomach rumbles in disapproval, he contemplates the merits of being considerate, and socking the person who gave Tokine an international cook-book in the face.

.20 – Picture

Etched in his mind are a name, a place and a memory, but in the land of the gods, he is already forgetting.

.21 – Fool

Sen surveys the scene with mock disdain; Yoshimori catches a glimpse of Tokine, turns a bright red and dashes off, Tokine yells his name in exasperation and pursues: he wishes they'd just hook up.

.22 – Mad

He's been dead for years now, and still she guards Karasumori, "its still my duty,'' she answers them, though Karasumori is a sacred land no longer, though he died to seal it up (to free them of this burden), _so he won't be lonely_-the words go unspoken.

.23 – Child

He is passed out from exhaustion, and she refuses to think of him as anything more than a mere child, so she sighs, smiles, and cannot help but reach out to brush strands of hair out of his face.

.24 – Now

She still refuses to talk to him during the day and he remains headstrong and over-protective, but between them a not-quite-normal, somewhat comfortable routine unfolds.

.25 – Shadow

Its been years now, and both of them have seen too much, been cut too deep, have lost too many; but then Yoshimori delves into his latest candy-castle creation, and for a moment (they are not hollow, empty, washed out shells), all is as it once was; she berates him and he grins, too wide, too bright, and the ghost of a smile flits across her features.

.26 – Goodbye

It is a word signifying finality and they are far too terrified at the prospect, so a valediction is never exchanged.

.27 – Hide

At the mere sight of her, he blushes a bright, beet red as his vision swims with images of soap, suds and (far-too-much) skin; squeezing his eyes tight and wills the earth to open up and swallow him whole.

.28 – Fortune

They celebrate his twenty-first birthday by getting drunk off their ass in some seedy, nameless pub; halfway through the night's festivities, Masamori leaves, conspiratorial smirk in place, citing an urgent matter concerning the Yagyou, Sen and Shuu soon follow suit; so a slightly-more-than-tipsy Yoshimori is left with a plastered-drunk Tokine who proceeds to lean on him ever-so-slightly and order him a 'slow, comfortable, screw against a wall': Yoshimori blushes five different kinds of red that night.

.29 – Safe

She is not like him, not stupid and reckless and foolish and brave, not brimming with power and potential; her skills lie in careful deduction, in exploiting flaws, and she is not beyond resorting to dirty, under-handed tactics in order to win (for this is a game of survival), but tonight, it is her who stands between him and the beast and it is her who falls.

.30 – Ghost

Neither says this, but on their nightly patrols around Karasumori, they sometimes feel the lingering presence of another; Tokine shrugs, Yoshimori's eyes darken, and they both wonder whether will they one day join him.

.31 – Book

She likes to think of herself as practical, the tomes she reads are about history: war-tactics and conquests (somehow, a romance novel slips in the pile, this, she blames on Madoka); he finds solace in books: tales steeped in fantasy and paper-thin plotlines, in knowing that no matter how grim the current situation, the characters get their happy ending, "Yoshimori, you girl," she jests when she learns of this, he looks away so she doesn't see him blush, then retorts, " At least I don't have the reading taste of a forty-year-old man.''

.32 – Eye

She wants to be happy for him, but her mind runs wild with visions of could-haves, should-haves, would-haves, still, she smiles, nothing short of amiable and utterly convincing, asks who's the lucky lady and teases him into blushing, she has learnt to hide her feelings behind a paper mask (though she does not, cannot meet his eyes when she does this)-hers is a quibbling façade.

.33 – Never

Yoshimori knows he's stubborn, stupid and reckless and deep, deep down, he thinks he'll never be what she wants, he acknowledges all of this, but still he tries (because want is different than need), and he allows himself to dream.

.34 – Sing

"What do you think you're doing, Yoshimori?" she doesn't know whether to be touched or utterly embarrassed, "…its chapter eight in my handbook. So...are you…" at this he trails off to squint at his book, " …'wooed off your feet' yet?" a hand is at her temple as she tries very hard to suppress a giggle.

.35 – Sudden

"So, I was thinking, when this blows over and only if we survive and all, but how about a date?" she gives him an appraising look, he answers with a sheepish grin, "…I'll take that as a yes?"

.36 – Stop

"I know your families are feuding and all that, but macking in various places in Karasumori, be it a classroom, cafeteria, or the janitor's closet is unethical, sordid and entirely unsavory, this has got to stop," the silence is interrupted by sounds of shifting clothes, heaving and fidgeting, then-"…you're just jealous you're not getting some action, where's Shuu?"

.37 – Time

Yoshimori dreams (remembers): adventures with his childhood friend, scuffles with his older brother, a time riddled with carefree days (of blood running rivulets down a wound borne from ill-placed mercy and naivety, staining the ground of Karasumori); he wakes, and without a way to go back, he moves forward.

.38 – Wash

Soaking wet, he holds out his hand and beams; she throws him a bewildered look, but takes it nonetheless," I can't believe you've never done this before…err, open your mouth so you can taste it better," she mock-glares at him, but eventually complies and soon, her clothes are sodden too, "Eye contact, Yoshimori," she tells him, and laughs when he blushes and looks away.

.39 – Torn

He is back from Kokuborou and apart from a few scuffs and scratches, is relatively unscathed; indignation emanating, she storms up to him; not knowing whether to hit him or hug him, she settles on a compromise and does both.

.40 – History

She thinks of their past, of knees grazed raw from adventure, of apple trees conquered and picked clean, and a snot-nosed little crybaby who ran to her for help, before replying with a cool, calculated ease, "Do whatever you want, I'm just his neighbor," and nobody catches the stiffness in her stride or the slight clenching of her jaw as she makes her leave.

.41 – Power

He refuses to lose to her, she refuses to become a burden to him and so they train.

.42 – Bother

She dismisses his worried looks at the cut on her neck and calmly says," No Yoshimori, I don't need antiseptic, a bandage or the little pillow you always carry around,'' he frowns, wordlessly hands her a carton of coffee-milk and she knows better than to refuse.

.43 – God

It is raining (black-blood, ruby-red), and down, down, down into the blood-soaked ground they sink, he stands between her and the nightmare, as she takes the plunge: the blood on her hands is that of a god's.

.44 – Wall

Things are different now, her father's dead; and she's changed, become older and colder in the span of one night, the halcyon days have long past and he wishes for nothing more than for them to return, but their past has already been written, so he settles on changing their future, he'll tear down her paper walls, he refuses to be cut off: Yoshimori wipes away his tears and trains.

.45 – Naked

She wakes up half-naked in a strange bed, in some strange place, with a brain that feels like its splitting in two, clutching her head gingerly, she takes in her surroundings: a unicycle, a pop-tart and bunny ears atop a mop of messy black hair, brushing stray strands of hair out of his face, she decides that answers could wait, instead, she raises a quizzical eyebrow and takes to scrutinizing the pop-tart.

.46 – Drive

He is bleeding, lacerations coating his back, and he sways ever-so-slightly as he walks over to her; his last words are, "you alright, Tokine?'' and she catches him as he falls.

.47 – Harm

"You're a suicidal idiot, you know that right?'' Tokine berates, Yoshimori grins in response and winces when she not so gently presses a cold-compress to his wound.

.48 – Precious

"Didn't I tell you that what I want to protect isn't Karasumori? What I want to protect is...'' he trails off and she convinces herself the color in his cheeks is due to the wind.

.49 – Hunger

She sighs and hands him a tray of her second feeble attempt at baking (it started out as cream puffs, but somewhere down the line, everything went horribly, horribly wrong), still, he takes a bite with a smile: hunger is the last thing on his mind.

.50 – Believe

"One day I'll seal Karasumori, so nobody will get hurt ever again,'' he states, eyes fixed upon the distant horizon; she calls him a fool in response, eyes clouding over with something indiscernible as she stares at the breaking dawn.


End file.
